AU Evening Wrap: Australia Shares Lose 0.4% as Miners, Banks Slip

Australia's $S&P/ASX 200 (.XJO.AU)$ closed 0.4% lower at 7780.2, weighed by weakness in shares of its largest miners and banks. Shares in nine of the 10 largest companies by market capitalization lost ground as the benchmark index followed a soft lead by U.S. equities. Local investors may be waiting on Wednesday's monthly inflation data and Thursday's jobs data before placing large bets.

Iron-ore miners $BHP Group Ltd (BHP.AU)$ and $Fortescue Ltd (FMG.AU)$ lost 0.6% and 1.2%, respectively, giving back some of their strong recent gains.

Banks $CommBank (CBA.AU)$, $National Australia Bank Ltd (NAB.AU)$, $ANZ Group Holdings Ltd (ANZ.AU)$ and $Westpac Banking Corp (WBC.AU)$ gave up between 0.2% and 0.8%.